The Pilgrims of Rayne

IBARA

The ring of Flighters slowly grew tighter around us, while thousands of dados watched from above. As the reality of what we now faced became clear, I was hit with a wave of emotion I’m not sure how to describe, other than to say I felt beaten. Not just on Veelox. Everywhere.

“You’re right about the Flighters, Pendragon,” Saint Dane said. “They aren’t capable of mounting anywhere near the kind of force I need. Though they have been quite helpful. We’ve been testing the defenses of Ibara for a while now. Their hard work will insure the minimum amount of loss when the fun begins.”

Fun. He was about to overrun Halla with a mechanized army. Talk about mixing the territories! Everything else had been prelude. With an army like this, he could wreak havoc on Ibara. And Second Earth. And Third Earth. And every other territory that wouldn’t know how to deal with such an invincible foe.

“As I said, it’s too late, Pendragon,” he chuckled. “For what?” I asked, not really caring to know.

“For you to join me,” he said with mock sympathy. “It wouldn’t be the same, now that you know you’ve been beaten. I wanted you when you thought you still had a chance. Now, well, it would be embarrassing for you to beg. So don’t. Unless you feel the need.”

“What do we do?” Siry whispered.

“Nothing. It’s over.”

“It’s not,” he hissed in anger.

All I wanted was to crawl into one of the Lifelight tubes and make it my home for eternity. Siry grabbed me roughly by the arm.

“Ahhh!” Saint Dane exclaimed with a laugh. “This delusional young Traveler has some fight left. Perhaps you should explain to him how completely hopeless your situation is.”

I was in a daze. Instead of trying to come up with our next move, all I could do was imagine an army of dados marching on Washington. Or New York. Or Xhaxhu. I grew more depressed with every passing second… while the Flighters closed in.

Siry pulled my arm, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were on fire. He got right in my face and angrily whispered, “We can’t give up.”

“They’re robots, Siry. Mechanical men. They can’t die. Even if one did, there’d be a dozen more to take its place.”

“We have to warn Ibara,” he said, still whispering. “They need to know what’s coming. They have the right to try and defend themselves.”

“This is way bigger than Ibara.”

“Not right now it isn’t,” Siry shot back. “We can’t give up.”

I focused on him. Siry had grown up in the last few days. Dealing with death and Armageddon will tend to do that.

Where I had tuned out, he was now thinking clearly. I glanced over his shoulder to see the ring of Flighters tightening up. We were at the center of a large circle that had reached Saint Dane.

“Whispering secrets?” Saint Dane taunted. “Do you actually think you can do anything to stop an army of dados?”

I looked to Siry and saw determination. I looked to Saint Dane and saw arrogance. It was the jolt I needed. The hatred I felt for that guy surged back. We might have been on the verge of defeat, but we were going down swinging.

“Stay close to me,” I whispered to Siry.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I bolted toward the center of the pyramid. Siry was right with me. My best hope was that we would catch the Flighters by surprise before they braced themselves to stop us. I blasted toward the smallest one and barreled right through him, shoulder first. With a loud grunt I knocked the vagrant on his butt. We were out of the circle.

Saint Dane’s laugh echoed through the pyramid. He was still having fun. Good for him. We’d gotten over the first hurdle. There were plenty more to come. I actually had a plan. It was a desperate one, but that pretty much described our situation. I jammed for the elevator in the center of the pyramid. If we could get inside and close the door, we might be able to get up to another level and lose ourselves. There were all sorts of things wrong with that plan. Dados were everywhere. The elevator might not even be working. Or it might not have been on the ground floor. It was a desperate plan, but at least it was a plan.

The Flighters finally figured they should be doing something and ran after us. They weren’t the brightest bunch. We reached the central tube way ahead of them.

“Where are we going?” Siry asked.

“Up!”

The elevator door was open. The car was on the ground. Our luck was holding. We jumped inside and I started hitting buttons. I didn’t know how to work this thing, so I figured if I hit them all, the door was bound to close. That was assuming the elevator had power in the first place.

The Flighters were now sprinting for the door.

“We’re trapped,” Siry said, just as the doors closed in front of us. I heard several loud thuds outside as the Flighters bashed into it. They hammered with their fists, as if that would make it open. It didn’t. I saw a lever that I hoped would get us off the ground. I couldn’t remember how Aja had run this thing. I feared that if I hit the wrong button, the door would open up again and, “Surprise, you Flighters! Just kidding!” I grabbed the lever and pushed it forward. The elevator lurched. We had power!

“Are we moving?” Siry asked, frightened. He’d never seen an elevator.

“We’re going up the central tube,” I answered. “To where?”

“I don’t know. I’m thinking we take this thing up as high as it will go, and see what we find.”

“Thank you, Pendragon,” he said sincerely. “I’m not giving up.”

“No, you were right. It would be wrong not to try and warn Ibara. People have the right to choose their own destiny, right?”

Siry gave me a smile and nodded sadly. “There’s no hope, is there?”

Things were about as bleak as they’d ever been. At least we were alive and moving. We had to keep trying. It was our job.

“There’s always hope,” I said. “It’s the one thing Saint Dane can’t destroy.”

“So it’s all true,” Siry muttered. “Everything my father told me.”

I nodded and shrugged.

“Then why was he on the tribunal? If he was concerned about the turning point of Veelox, what did that have to do with the tribunal?”

It was like a ray of light had suddenly cut through the dusty dark. With one simple observation, Siry sparked a thought that made me realize we might not be so done after all.

“Saint Dane wasn’t telling us everything,” I declared. “This isn’t a training exercise. He wants to sway the turning point. That’s what he does.”

“You say that like it’s good news,” Siry said, confused.

“It is. It’s never about a battle. It’s about a decision. A choice. That’s what turns the territories. If it were just about winning a war or enemies fighting, Saint Dane would have won every territory. Saint Dane pushes people into making bad decisions, because he’s out to prove something.”

D. J. MacHale

The Pilgrims of Rayne

“Prove what? To who?”

“To who I don’t know. If I knew that, I’d unravel this whole thing. But I know what he’s trying to prove. He wants to show that the people of Halla are selfish and flawed. He told me that everything he’s ever done would never have happened if the people didn’t want it to happen.”

“Is it true?” Siry asked.

“No!” I replied. “He twists things. He makes people believe they’re doing the right thing, when in reality he’s pushing them toward destruction. The turning points are critical times in a territory’s history. If Remudi was on the tribunal, the turning point must have something to do with Ibara.

That’s why Saint Dane wants to attack. It’s not about conquering the island. It’s about forcing the people into making a bad decision. Then he can say it was all their fault in the first place.”

“So what do we do?”

“We have to get back to the tribunal and warn them about the dados. But we’ve also got to figure out what the turning point is. If we can figure that out, the battle might not even matter.”

Siry frowned. “I’m totally confused.”

The elevator slowed to a stop. I braced myself, ready to pounce. Or be pounced on. The elevator stopped. A very long moment passed. The doors slid open. I was ready to get hit by a dado. Instead I was hit with blinding light and a fierce wind. The force was so strong it pushed us both back to the rear of the elevator. I fell to my knees, I think by instinct. Siry crept forward and grabbed the edge of the open door. I crawled forward, still squinting against the light, trying to get my eyes to adjust.

“We’re on top of the clouds,” Siry gasped.

He wasn’t far from wrong. The elevator had opened at the uppermost point of the pyramid. Centuries of erosion had eaten huge holes into the steeply slanted walls, which meant we were looking over Rubic City from the highest point possible. To say it was breathtaking is a huge understatement. Laid out before us was the entire city. Beyond that was the ocean. The skyscrapers that seemed so immense from ground level now looked like Lego toys beneath us. I was both awed and saddened. Not many people get the chance to see something like this. Cities are staggeringly huge and complicated creations. Seeing it from so high up gave us that perspective. That sense of awe made it all the more painful to know it was a city of the dead.

There might have been ten feet of floor between the elevator doors and the outside wall. Or what was left of it. The floor itself wasn’t in much better shape than the rotten walls. I looked down to see big chunks of floor missing.

“Careful where you step,” I cautioned.

I worried that it wouldn’t matter how careful we were. The whole floor looked as solid as a piece of dry paper. Neither of us was too quick to leave the elevator, until the doors started closing.

“Get out!” I shouted.

We both hopped out. I held my breath, fearing the floor would collapse under our weight. The elevator doors closed. We heard the sound of the car descending. I had no doubt that it would soon return, loaded with Flighters. Or dados.

“Now what?” Siry asked.

It was looking as if I had led us into a dead end. My escape plan had only delayed the inevitable. We were still prisoners, only with a better view. I walked cautiously across the floor toward the destroyed, slanted wall. The wind blew through the holes, making whistling sounds. I cautiously peeked out of the hole and down the side of the pyramid. The sight made me nearly lose my balance. It was like my inner ear suddenly went all wacky. I pulled myself back in and closed my eyes to fight the vertigo.

“What did you see?” Siry asked.

“It’s a long way down,” I said, with my eyes still closed. “I think the angle of the wall threw me off a little.”

That’s when the idea hit me. I took a breath, opened my eyes, and peered back outside. This time I knew what to expect, so I wasn’t as rocked. There was no way to judge how high up we were. The wall wasn’t straight down, because it was a pyramid. It angled out. Centuries ago the surface was slick and black. Now it was a mess of holes. Some big, some not. Chunks of framework stuck out everywhere. It looked more like a chopped-up field of garbage than the wall of a pyramid.

To me it looked like an escape route.

“We’re climbing down the outside,” I announced.

“What?” Siry shot back with horror.

“The angle of the wall isn’t that steep. There’s plenty to grab on to. Unless you’ve got a better idea, I say we go for it.”

Siry joined me at the hole and peered out. He took a long hard look at the surface, then a long hard look at me.

“You’re crazy, you know that?”

“Yeah, but in a couple of minutes that elevator is going to hit bottom and Saint Dane is going to get on and bring up some of his pals to take us back. Which way do you want to go down?”

Siry looked sick. I probably did too. I wasn’t as confident in this insane plan as I was making it sound. Without waiting for Siry to make a decision, I stuck my foot out of the hole, turned back toward Siry… and stepped out onto the face of the pyramid. At first the biggest problem was the wind. I was able to get a foothold on a piece of frame and felt pretty secure. But I was afraid the wind would blow me off. I flattened my belly against the steep wall, trying to create as much friction as possible.

“Don’t look down,” I called.

“Don’t worry.”

I carefully started to climb down. It was all about finding secure foot- and handholds. The surface of the pyramid was chewed up, creating several of each. I didn’t stop to think about how insane this was. I was hanging against the outside of a building a hundred stories in the air. I wasn’t afraid of falling. I was afraid of sliding. One false step and I knew I’d start a slide that would be impossible to stop. It would be just as bad as a fall.

Siry was right behind me. Or right above me. Or… something. You get the idea. If he lost his footing, he’d come sliding right down onto me and bye-bye both of us.

“You okay?” I called up.

“I’m still here” was his answer. Good enough.

I always had four choices of where to go next. Between my two hands and two feet, one of them kept finding a lower perch. It was working. We were moving down. I was beginning to think our biggest worry was going to be Saint Dane discovering us creeping down the outside of the building, totally defenseless.

It wasn’t. I heard a wrenching crack sound.

“Ahhh!” screamed Siry. He lost his grip and started to slide. A moment later he shot right past me. I reached out to grab him. Bad move. The moment I let go with my left hand, I felt myself sliding too. I had to quickly pull my hand back and grab on, or I would have gone down right after him. I watched in horror as Siry picked up speed. Looking down, I realized the idiocy of our plan. Seeing him slide away, and looking beyond him to the ground so far away, brought the vertigo back. The only way I could keep from losing my grip was by closing my eyes and pressing my cheek against the skin of the pyramid. I wanted to pound my fist against it in anger.

I heard a crash and a scream from below. It didn’t sound good. Do crashes and screams ever sound good? I took a few deep breaths and looked down to see… nothing. gone. That seemed impossible. No way he would have fallen out of sight so quickly.

“Pendragon?” I heard a dazed voice call.

“Are you all right?” I called back.

“The wall caved in. I’m inside.”

He was alive, at least for the moment. I started moving again. Slowly, gradually, I made my way down toward Siry’s voice. I had gotten only a few yards when I realized that the surface of the pyramid was becoming unstable. Before I could think of some way to deal with that, the panel beneath me cracked and caved. I fell into the pyramid, tumbling down in a shower of black tiles. I landed next to Siry, who was sitting up, alive but dazed. The two of us stared at each other.

“Let’s not do that again,” he said.

We were fine. Stunned. A little cut up, but fine. I saw that we were in one of the cubicles that held two jump tubes. “What are those?” Siry asked.

He pointed to the two round hatches on the wall that covered the tubes. They were closed. I wasn’t about to open them. I didn’t want to know what was inside. The control lights were dark. The jumps had been over for a long time.

“Jump tubes,” I explained. “Where the people entered Lifelight.”

“People are in there?” he asked.

“Not anymore.” I didn’t go into any more details.

I stood up cautiously, making sure my bones were intact. I had a few scrapes, but that was all. Siry got away even easier. We had lived through an impossible stunt, but were still trapped inside a dado-infested pyramid.

I gently pushed the door open. The first thing I saw were two dados marching by. I froze. Had they seen me? No. Or they weren’t looking for us. Either way, they didn’t stop.

Peering out showed me that we had slid about a quarter of the way down the pyramid. My idea ended up not being that crazy after all. Sort of. Okay, maybe we were nearly killed, but it helped us to get away. At least for a while. We were in the dead center of the long balcony, with jump rooms spread out to either side of us. The balcony was about six feet wide and looked out over the center of the pyramid. The place was alive with dados. They walked slowly and methodically along the balconies that ringed the inside of the pyramid. Many more marched along the catwalks leading to the center tube and the elevator.

“We’ll never get past them,” Siry sighed.

I glanced around looking for… I didn’t know what. Anything. Looking back inside the room with the jump tubes, I saw a few pieces of clothing were folded neatly in the corner.

“There’s a start,” I declared, and jumped back into the room. Lying in the corner neatly folded were a couple pairs of dark pants and some light-colored shirts. There were shoes, too. They looked every bit like the kinds of clothing people wore on Veelox… three hundred years before. When I picked them up, they shredded in my hands. The sick thought hit me that these clothes belonged to the two people who were probably still in the jump tubes wearing the green coveralls that all jumpers wore. There wouldn’t be anything left of those coveralls. Or the people for that matter. The only thing left of them were the clothes they wore before their jump.

“Put ‘em on,” I ordered, taking off my own colorful Ibara clothes. “They might think we’re Flighters, and we can blend in.”

We both quickly changed out of our Ibara clothes and slipped on the ancient clothing of Veelox. We had to be careful, because the fabric crumbled in our hands. But good too. The raggier we were, the more we’d look like Flighters. Siry’s clothes were too big for him and mine were too small, but that was okay.

“What do you think?” Siry asked, standing up for me to see.

“You’re a mess,” I said. “Perfect.”

The clothes were as uncomfortable as hell. Not just because they felt like sandpaper, but the idea of wearing dead people’s clothing was kind of creepy. The only thing we kept of our own clothes were our sandals. The crumbling shoes were no good, and we might have needed to run. Our hair wasn’t very ratty-Flighter-looking either. Still, it was the best we could do.

“There’s gotta be another way down besides that central elevator,” I said.

“Let’s find it,” Siry answered.

We slipped out of the room and out onto the balcony. Most of the dados had left the balcony and were walking along the catwalks toward the elevator. More interesting were the dados that walked toward either end of the balcony.

“I’ll bet that’s our way down,” I declared.

I stepped forward and looked over the edge. What I saw made my gut clutch, and not just because we were so high up. Far down below, on the floor, the dados were gathering. They streamed out of the elevator and the four corners of the pyramid.

“Look where they’re coming from,” Siry exclaimed. “There must be a way down at each corner.”

He was right. We would find our way down. But that’s not what struck me. More and more dados were arriving on the floor and stepping into military-like formation. They were falling in to precise groups of twenty across and forty deep. In between each of these groups, another dado marched, making sure the formation was perfectly correct. The robots stood at attention, as if waiting for orders.

“It’s an army,” I said quietly. “An organized army. They’re getting ready.”

“For what?”

“To attack Ibara.”

“Pendragon, even if we get out of here, how are we going to get back to Ibara to warn them?” “That’s the easy part,” I answered. Siry gave me a confused look.

“I can get us to Ibara,” I said with confidence. “All we have to do is figure out how to get past a swarm of killer bees.”

(CONTINUED)